My confession for this week is that I don't like electronic music. In all its forms, fashions and styles, I just don't like it. Maybe I simply don't get it. Maybe it's the Cro-Magnon in me that demands there be a guitar in each song I listen to, or maybe it's my lingering resentment at the fact that a crazed Casio synthesizer killed my mother when I was nine. Whatever the case, electronic music and I are not friends. Even the phrase "electronic music" conjures to my mind pale, slogan-spouting, socialist, militant vegetarians out to make the world into one large rave, and there could be nothing worse than that.

Well, even I get surprised every once in a while, and when I slapped on Class' A Quiet Life EP, I was damned surprised. I knew it was electronic, so I expected an EP's worth of pops, buzzes, whistles and studio fuzz. The only upside was that it was only an EP, and therefore my listening pain would be cut mercifully short. What I didn't expect was an intelligent, talented, musical record that dealt with genuine emotions. I didn't expect skillfully crafted songs that are more ambient that electronic, or that the short running time would actually become painfully brief.

A Quiet Life is background music so vivid that you can envision the time, far in the future, that should have spawned this music. It's a sad future where lovers can be separated by the distance between planets and computers run our worlds with cold, mechanical efficiency. Class' minimalist reverberating vocals sound so far away and so damn lonely, channeling the vast emptiness of space directly into your ear. On top of these songs, this isn't just technical trickery-- it becomes important.

"Strobe Light," the disc's opener, is sexier than a free lap-dance, but there's another level behind the smooth bump and grind of the rhythm. The song's lyrics, "I want to make love to you/ By strobe light," sung so plaintively, speak of more than just pure physical gratification. They speak of raw desire and the sadness of separation. That's what makes Class stand out above other electronic music-- it's a very human record, as concerned with personal connections as much as it is with space and technology. Other tracks, such as the stark "Sierra" and "Japanese Technology" continue this blending of emotions, making for inspiring, jaw-dropping music.

The three remixes of "Strobe Light" on the disc, however, are more for the hardcore Class fan, though they still maintain this EP's standards of quality. The only real problem with the record-- and it's a relatively microscopic problem-- is that there's an overall lack of variety. Each song does not necessarily carry the exact same sound, but each is similar enough to invoke comparisons not only to the rest of the EP, but to electronic music in general. But that's not Class' fault, it's simply one of the truisms of playing on the electronic ballfield.

Early on into the music, A Quiet Life moves far beyond the label of "good electronic music" and becomes just plain ol' "good music." Even if electronica makes my eardrums bleed, I still dig good music, and I dig this record.

-Steven Byrd